Music

Valletta International Baroque Festival 2017

12 Jan 17 - 28 Jan 17Valletta

Photo credit: Teatru Manoel

The Valletta International Baroque Festival was set up in 2013 to create a unique annual January event that celebrates Valletta as a quintessentially baroque city. The festival uses a number of wonderful baroque and historical locations throughout its two week musical extravaganza celebrating the aristocratic grandeur of Malta’s capital city.

Since then it has featured international artists like Mahan Esfahani, Philippe Herreweghe, Jordi Savall, Iestyn Davies and Christophe Rousset. The festival has also created the Valletta International Baroque Ensemble (VIBE) with the aim of having a professionally trained local ensemble performing in a historically informed manner hitherto archived ‘Maltese’ music which was composed by resident and Italian masters for the Order of St John and the Church.

With two very important events on the horizon, namely the EU Presidency in 2017 and the European Capital of Culture the following year, plans for the Valletta International Baroque Festival are not only long-term but also ambitious. No stone has been left unturned in securing some of the best contemporary Baroque exponents, both from the international sphere as well as locally.

The high calibre the programme should give this Festival the international status it deserves and extend the Baroque map of Europe to Malta.